Flexible Space | Housing
The Greenpoint housing structure has two faces, one borders
the street and the other interacts with a backyard. Observing the
distribution of pervious ground in Greenpoint-Brooklyn we find them
predominantly as communal back yards serving an entire block.
Working from the typology of the industrial hangar building, while
incorporating the backyard into its fabric the building aims to create
a dialogue between the urban terrain and the landscape. The building
provides an armature for plant growth as well as living. Wedding
precedent forms with the environment this structure offers the
itinerant inhabitant exposure to a local and removed experience.
The project takes its root from a warehouse typology because (1)
of its prevalence within Greenpoint and strong relationship to the
immediate area surrounding the site & (2) because the building type
provides a blank slate, an inherently flexible space. The project aims
to define a system that can be developed to support plant life and
people. The building evidences its adaptive potential through the
inhabitantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use and the conflation of programs.
Location: Brooklyn, New York

city & shared backyard edge conditions

proposed gradient between two edge types

gradient vector

basic floorplate structure

cleft floorplate merging edge conditions

2

1.01

unit axon

ground floor

unit assembly

typical floor plan

4

1.02

Arc Graft | Archive for the Guggenheim Institute
Examining the Archive for the Guggenheim Institute in Long Island
City, New York through the lens of grafting presents the opportunity to
explore systems of linkage and integration, within the programmatic
constraints of the archive, to site and to the Guggenheim Institute
at-large. The location of the Archive is interpreted as a microcosm
of Long Island city and is situated with respect to the undeveloped
Guggenheim museum, while taking cues from the street alignment,
train tracks and the different elevations present.
The Grafted Archive is created through altering the present built
environment and entwining the core element of the program with the
site. At the moments of connection between new development and
previous structure a type of callus is formed, and is experienced as a
threshold, passage, window or change in materiality.
Grafting provides a structure unlike a hybrid, in that it catalogues
what is generative and as well as forms that propagate and deposits
of the various types of conflation are catalogued throughout the
overall form.
Location: Queens, New York

4 Points of Approach

2 Distinct Elevations

1 Stock Building

Pedestrian Opportunity

Massing as Bridging Site

Grafted Moments

New Walkways & Open Space

Grafted Archive
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1.02

plan at 3’

plan at 18’

plan at 29’

plan at 39’

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2.01

Plywood Watering Can
Part sculpture, part product, the Watering Can was made in response
to a prompt from a product design course. Its execution was coupled
with an analysis of the formal and performative aspects of watering
cans over time.
The piece is intended to have a ambiguous relationship with
its utilitarian task. Formally, the product distinguishes its fill
compartment from its spout with a simple change in height, while
the traditional handle has been reduced to two holes that guide the
userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hands.

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2.02

3 Birch Chairs
The 3 plywood chairs were created as unadorned and inexpensive
furniture that clearly exhibited the elements of fastening and
production. 5/8â&#x20AC;? Baltic Birch plywood served as a metric to work
within. The designs expose the edge condition of this engineered
woodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s laminates to allow subtle disruptions to the simple lines in the
furniture.
The seat is emphasized in each chair through framing it by the
dimension of the sheet good used, creating a type of surrogate
cushion.

15”

12”

27.25”

15.25”

16.75”

16.75”

30.5”

18”

21.25”

19”

27.75”

18”

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2.03

Serial Grains | Urban Food Stand
The Food Stand, within the context of the city, presents a peculiar
dialogue with its surroundings. Here, the assembly combines a
relentless construction method and subtle changes in form with a
sensitivity to a line of sight in hopes of creating an experience where
one would become aware of their place within a city with respect to
the food they choose to eat.
The design of the structure was rooted in permutations of a previous
project, extracting moments of fastening and expanding the derived
catalogue of parts into a vernacular for a new project. The repetitive,
mechanical-looking, forms that constitute the Food Stand are a
result of this process.

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2.03

16

3.01

Post & Current | Houston Urbanism
The site in downtown Houston, though currently blighted by
infrastructure, unused buildings and vast lots, provides the
opportunity to preserve and revitalize an urban landmark while
creating residential loft and office spaces for a diverse demographic.
The massive ex-post office is divided into urban blocks and injected
with programmatic variety, while new pedestrian corridors connect
the complex to the river front.
Franklin Street is realigned and coupled with new roads for various
scales of transport to create a connection to the complex, while
encouraging residents to walk and bike.
In the final stage development is fully landscaped, furthering
the connection to the river front and providing multiple scales of
parks. The emergence of small apartments and retail spaces in the
townhouses by the water expand the diversity on the site and fully
integrate the development into the fabric of the city at-large.
Location: Houston, Texas

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3.01

Current Building Layout

Current Street Layout

Proposed Building Layout

Proposed Street Layout

1
3

Franklin Street
Office Building
realigned
Townhouse

Retail

Theatre
Hotel

Covered
Parking

Townhouse

Affordable
Housing

Office

Office

Grocery/Retail

Single Resident
Occupancy

Residential

1

1
Phase 2

4

3

2

Phase 1

Phase 3

Building section: single sided ventilation via a double facade

Phase 4

fresh air across

2

4

hot air out

2
fresh air in

0 ft

10 ft

20 ft

20

3.02

Cuban Links | 2 Public Chances for Havana
Site 1 Havana Central Railway Station
A site defined as a connector, in fact isolates multiple parts of the
city from each other. By replacing the existent rail system, which
does not serve the public need, with a Bus Rapid Transit system the
land is reused as a botanic garden with defined pedestrian corridors,
bike lanes, new vehicular routes and massive amounts of new land
new development while maintaining the Historic Train Station as a
Cultural Beacon.
Site 2 Loma Modelo, Regla
Loma Modelo is the western most barrio in the Regla neighborhood.
Through years of industrial use and government occupation
the coastline has been rendered unsightly and has detached
the community from the bay and disconnects the area from the
urban fabric. With the movement of the shipping industry to the
Mantanzas Port, further down the coast, the area is available for new
programming. Here, entertainment and recreational components
are introduced into a new park that acts as a connector between the
neighborhood and the bay, to create a type of Urban Siphon, allowing
for a place of repose within the urban density.
Location: Havana, Cuba

1

2

Loma Modelo Park

22

3.02

Havana Central Park

Malecon

“Rambla”

Gloria

New Road

New Road

New Road

Apodaca

Arsenal

Corrales

24

Mision

Monte Maximo Gomez

Gloria

3.03

Informal Armatures | Stitching Harare
Harare is a patchwork city. The vision for the city in 2040 is
progressive and sees it equipped to handle the increase in population
by creating new centralities that are ecologically minded and offer
vibrant moments in currently under utilized areas.
The relationship between neighboring Glen Norah and Waterfalls
is disrupted by the wetlands of the Mukuvisi River. This condition
is further amplified by the roads that have been placed without the
intention of fostering an infrastructural connection between the
neighborhoods. The armature that is proposed combines tiered
transit opportunities with the development of the edges of both
communities. The tactics employed aim to dissolve the insular
tendencies that characterize the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban fabric, and place these
neighborhoods in dialogue with each other, as well as the city at large.
By working within the seams of the city, an opportunity for public
chance, economic stimulus and community building is created. The
link between Glen Norah and Waterfalls is established by improving
transit options and existing assets, while introducing programmatic
diversity and bamboo as a new productive planting. These
interventions enable the development of a culturally rich moment in
Harareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban fabric that links Glen Norah to Waterfalls.
Location: Harare, Zimbabwe